A Question of Control - 1970 Ford Torino

Through talent, sheer will and mathematics, this '70 Torino sports a 32V modular 4.6L V-8

Feature Article from Hemmings Muscle Machines

Anyone who's ever turned a wrench can tell you how a project can spiral out of control. The turning of a single bolt can predict the temperature of a project. For instance, a stripped oil-pan bolt can require the removal of the engine for a new pan--all because you wanted to change the oil. See what you get for maintaining your car? Suddenly, a half-hour job turns into a weekend-long hassle.

Article continues after advertisement

And then there are those who can bend sheetmetal to their will and stuff 10 pounds of engine under a five-pound hood. Piero Foppiano is one of those people.
When Piero's son Giuliano came of driving age, they mulled over what kind of car he'd need to pedal to high school and back. They quickly settled on a 1970 Torino that was languishing in the back of Piero's shop. A grandma-spec original with a tired 351 Cleveland two-barrel, C4 automatic and an open 3.00 rear, it was, perhaps, good enough for most--but not for the Foppianos. Piero, who runs the Ford-friendly Foppiano's Custom Fabrication in Fresno, California, wanted to think bigger.
"I had a 429 Cobra Jet engine in the shop here, ready to go... but then we got talking about something different under the hood. We briefly contemplated a V-10 in there, but ultimately we went back and forth between two choices: a 347 Windsor stroker, or a 4.6L four-cam out of a Lincoln Mk VIII." The aluminum Modular mill won out for the sheer kink factor.
Of course, this brought on a whole slew of new issues to conquer. "The engine was too wide for the Torino's shock towers," Piero confesses. To be honest, the shock towers in midsize Fords and Mustangs of the era are prominent enough that they make working on just about any factory-installed V-8 something of a chore, compared with the competition; the thought of wedging an engine as wide as a four-cam 4.6 in there seems impossible. Actually, it is impossible.
Until some major surgery is done, that is: shock towers, suspension, the lot of it. "I went to the junkyard and measured cars that would accommodate the 4.6," Piero tells us. "It was either a Fox-body front suspension or else the MN12, the 1989-'97 Ford Thunderbird/Mercury Cougar."
With the sheer number of available pieces for it, you'd think that the Fox-body architecture would win out. Wrong. "We went with the MN12 suspension; it had a wider track that would work for a bigger car."
Twenty years after MN12 T-Bird's launch, the front suspension seems unremarkable: coil springs, an anti-roll bar, and upper and lower control arms mounted to a subframe. The lower arm is composed of one lateral link and one diagonal trailing link, while the upper arm is attached to the spindle by a thin vertical extension. Beyond being a decade-newer design, it has the advantage of being designed to hold up a far heavier machine: an MN12 Thunderbird tickled two tons, as did Torinos of the era.
Making the two play nicely together was simple (at least, simple for someone who knows his way around a welder and a slide rule): The Torino subframe rails were field-stripped, and the complete MN12 K-member was grafted on. In order for this to work, the forward apron, radiator support and lower forward crossmember all needed to be fabricated, and the factory rear apron was modified as well, while the T-Bird shock towers were edited to fit the frame horns of the Torino. The rest was detail and finishing work.
"Including the engineering and fabrication time, it took about 40 hours to do," Piero estimates. "Now that I've already done the math, I could do it again in about 10 hours."
Other Mark VIII components include the fan, radiator and A/C condenser. Yes, the A/C is still functional. "About all it doesn't have from the Lincoln is power windows," Piero tells us. "And we could remedy that if we really wanted to."
The engine itself is a late Lincoln Mk VIII unit connected to its 4R70W four-speed automatic with overdrive. For reliability reasons, the engine has been left alone (for now): no forced induction, no radical cams, only a computer chip to boost performance. Piero swears that the factory under-rated the Modular engines, and that minus the emissions gunk, they're closer to 350hp at the flywheel. But we seem to recall a power-over-rating issue with Cobras circa 1999 that embarrassed the company to no end... as such, we're sticking with the stock Lincoln power rating in the spec box.
While the powertrain itself was left alone, the wiring to make it all work is enough to confuse an electrical engineering major. "I took the stock harness apart, redid the harness circuit by circuit, and took out everything that was unneeded," Piero tells us.
Some things were placed in new spots--the fan module, for instance, now lives under the front bumper. On the Torino, that puts it outside the car. "We used wiring from an '83 T-Bird for the inertial relay switch and the fuel pump--it's an electric 55-lb./hr. in-line T-Bird pump, outside the tank. All that wiring lives in the trunk now. The fusebox is back there, too--it helps power all the modern comforts, like the 12-volt ports to plug in a phone, iPod, laptop... maybe a radar detector..."
It's important to note as you read this that this car is about 95 percent complete. "It's still a weekend pleasure toy," says Piero. "Not a daily driver yet." It still needs a full exhaust, a radio, and myriad details fleshed out to make it the bulletproof daily driver that Piero and his son have always aspired for it to be.
We were particularly keen to drive this machine: After living with a modified-for-handling '70 Montego (Torino's twin under the skin) for more than half a dozen years, and having driven and photographed enough Torinos and Cyclones over the years, we thought we knew what to expect when slipping behind the wheel.
Not for the first time, we were completely wrong.
The interior lulls you into thinking it might well be standard-issue stuff. At first blush, it's typical Torino--shiny black vinyl everywhere, plenty of head and shoulder room to make yourself comfortable. The seats are stock buckets, meaning a bench seat roughly cut in thirds, so it's easy to slide in under the Grant steering wheel; what they lack in lateral bolstering, they make up for in straight-ahead comfort. Also, there's no radio currently, just a hole in the dash, obscured in photos; the reasoning behind its absence will become clear soon enough.
That said, there are some very obvious changes in here. First are the gauges: They're front and center, round and perfectly placed, replacing the frumpy factory "bar" speedo with the needle that wobbles back and forth like a schoolmarm's finger admonishing you for your speed. The ancillary oil pressure, water temp and volts gauges are low and center, and neatly integrated into the dash rather than just screwed into a dangling gyp-job bezel.
Shorter drivers may not have this problem, but for this wheelman, the rim of the steering wheel blocks the turn-signal indicators as well as the heater controls (pirated from the T-Bird but using the Torino's guts), and the shift indicator on the 4R70W is low enough in the console that you can't see what gear you're in without craning your neck over and spelunking down a dark hole. Or you could just count the detents, which is what we did. (Also, the Lincoln-issue ovoid black plastic handle looked out of place.)
Other changes include getting rid of all the ashtrays and installing 12-volt power points in each spot instead.
Turn the key just one click, and the shrill whine of the fuel pump fills the cabin. Turn it again, and you'll quickly be convinced that the engine is next to you, rather than on the other side of the firewall; the 1,000 RPM idle is fuel-injected smooth, rather than carbureted shivery, with an idle lope that's heard more than felt. But holy cats, is it loud.
Not helping is the sound of the exhaust system: There isn't one, currently, past the open-ended Flowmasters. Twin pipes will eventually come out the back, and mellow that sharp-edged sound considerably, but for the moment we're rocking abbreviated pipes that are distractingly loud. Conversations are instantly reduced to awkward hand signals. And that's just at idle.
The throttle is on a hair trigger, and the gentlest of feet will blip the revs north of three grand with little to no provocation. When you're there, the sound will drive you out of your skull. We can tell, because a) 72 hours after driving it, our ears are still ringing, and b) our unedited notes of our driving impressions manage to reference the noise roughly every other line.
Get moving, and the 4.6 feels snappier than the stock 351C that came in Torino GTs (and Cyclone GTs, for that matter). Torque, so often in short supply in Modular-powered and far lighter '96-up Mustangs, seemed perfectly fine here--in a much heavier car no less. We let the 4R70W trans shift itself, and though the owner claims there is a shift kit installed, we couldn't feel it. The shift is quick but the shift quality is surprisingly soft--the swapping of cogs is delineated more by a change in the exhaust note than a kick in the small of the back. In all honesty, we couldn't wrap our arms around the entirety of its potential, largely because we observed a heightened police presence in the rural area where our drive occurred.
As surprising as its acceleration was, the real trick here is in the corners--20 years of Ford's good development shows itself nicely here. The MN12 front suspension is a lot better realized than anything Ford was putting out in the '60s, and at the same time, the ride isn't bone-shatteringly stiff.
The rear was stiffer than stock, but the long 117-inch wheelbase helped cushion some of harsher edges you'd expect from reading the spec sheet; a one-inch anti-roll bar ("with custom bracketry we did, so that it actually works like it should," Piero tells us in no uncertain terms) keeps the rear tucked in around the bends as well. It's more than a good compromise: Neither element feels compromised at all. Front-drive-offset wheels and a wider track surely help in that regard--even with fairly mundane 235-wide tires.
The steering is modern-car quick as well, thanks to the T-Bird's power-assisted rack-and-pinion system, with no fight from the tires and sufficient feel kicking back through the column. Turn-in was sharper, more easily fed, and the rubber worked with the geometry rather than against it. It's brilliantly resolved, and feels a lot more fluid than the herky-jerky combination of 275-wide rubber with vintage steering, and the accompanying propensity for eating power-steering pumps, that we employed on our own car a decade ago.
It's a fantastic drive--seamless, in fact. It's rare to have things feel so all-of-a-piece on a factory-built muscle car, much less one made up from multiple others with a healthy dash of home-brewed hands-on. We fear that young owner-driver Giuliano might not quite know just how good he has it.
OWNER'S VIEW
I bought this Torino as an unmolested original from a friend nine years ago now; it reminded me of a 1970 Ranchero I had once that I really liked. I wanted to build a "resto-mod" car for my son, and this one was a natural to do.
The toughest part of the job was the complete reconstruction of the OBD-II engine controls and wiring harness and isolating each circuit to route them to specific plug connectors. I've considered putting on a ProCharger supercharger, and I've toyed with installing a five-speed manual transmission. For now, it's just driven on Sundays.--Piero Foppiano
PROS
+ Won't be easy to duplicate at home
+ Superlative ride/handling/cornering
+ Un-modular-like acceleration snap
CONS
- Won't be easy to duplicate at home
- Ears... bleeding. Must... see... doctor
- Seats betray chassis' cornering moves
SpecificationsEngine
Block type: Ford aluminum 1996 4.6 Modular V-8
Cylinder heads: Ford aluminum DOHC, 42cc combustion chambers
Displacement: 281 cubic inches
Bore x Stroke: 3.581 x 3.50 inches
Compression ratio: 10.01:1
Pistons: Ford flat-top
Connecting rods: Stock Ford powdered steel
Horsepower @ RPM: 280 @ 5,500
Torque @ RPM: 285-lbs.ft. @ 4,500
Camshaft: type Stock Ford hydraulic roller; powdered metal on hollow bar; chain-driven
Duration: 206.5 degrees intake, 195 degrees exhaust
Lift: 0.404-inch intake, 0.404-inch exhaust
Valvetrain: 1.457-inch intake valves, 1.181-inch exhaust valves (two per chamber)
Fuel system: Ford EEC-V computer-controlled port fuel injection, 24-pound fuel injectors, Ford Racing electric fuel pump
Lubrication system: Factory Ford gear-type crankshaft-driven pump
Ignition system: Factory coil-on-plug
Exhaust system: Factory manifolds, 2.25-inch dual exhaust, Flowmaster mufflers
Original Engine: 351-cu.in. Cleveland V-8
Transmission
Type: Ford 4R70W four-speed automatic with overdrive; shift kit
Ratios 1st: 2.84:1
2nd: 1.56:1
3rd: 1.00:1
4th: 0.70:1
Differential
Type: Ford 9-inch axle housing and carrier
Ratio: 3.50:1
Steering
Type: Ford MN12 (1989-'97 T-Bird) rack-and-pinion, power assist
Turns, lock-to-lock: 2.8
Turning circle: 35.6 feet (estimated)
Brakes
Front: Optional 2004 Ford Mustang GT 13-inch "performance" rotor
Rear: Stock 11-inch Ford cast-iron drum
Suspension
Front: Ford MN12 (1989-'97 T-Bird) independent; unequal-length control arms, Eibach 1.5-inch lowering coil springs, KYB shock absorbers, 1.125-inch anti-roll bar
Rear: Stock '70 Torino semi-elliptic leaf springs, one added spring, Skyjacker traction bars, telescoping KYB air shocks, 1-inch anti-roll bar with custom bracketry
Wheels & Tires
Wheels: 2005 Ford Mustang cast aluminum wheels
Front: 17 x 9 inches
Rear: 17 x 9 inches
Tires: Pirelli P-Zero Nero
Front: 235/55R17
Rear: 235/55R17
Performance
Accleration: Not Tested

This article originally appeared in the December, 2009 issue of Hemmings Muscle Machines.